{"id":296227,"date":"2019-03-27T06:06:55","date_gmt":"2019-03-26T20:06:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=296227"},"modified":"2019-03-27T06:06:55","modified_gmt":"2019-03-26T20:06:55","slug":"building-a-business-from-the-ground-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/building-a-business-from-the-ground-up\/","title":{"rendered":"Building a business from the ground up"},"content":{"rendered":"
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4EVER CNMI wood art are ready to get customized. (Bea Cabrera)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Cultural diversity may be the operative term of the day, but local heritage remains steadfast and celebrated with the help of businesses like 4EVER CNMI. In fact, it is the company\u2019s raison d\u2019\u00eatre. <\/p>\n

As a new player in the retail business, 4EVER CNMI\u2019s motto is written on every apparel, product, and service that they offer: \u201cMade in the CNMI.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to 4EVER CNMI owner Sheanna Pangelinan, her business plan was simple\u2014to promote and preserve island culture. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe CNMI has relied almost entirely on imported goods and it is difficult to find ‘Made in the CNMI’ gifts, d\u00e9cor, and memorabilia. \u2026Shirts say \u2018Saipan\u2019 but it was produced in China,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n

\u201cMany locals and visitors alike seek out \u2018Made in the CNMI\u2019 products\u2026that represent the beauty and special cultural identity of the Northern Mariana Islands. \u2026The goal is to put logo, create art and write sayings on wood, shirts, hats that [promote] the island culture,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

Pangelinan comes from a business-oriented family but her passion for art is the real driver of 4EVER CNMI. \u201cI got my first exposure when I joined the Flame Tree [Festival] in 2016 and sold handcrafted and hand-painted wood signs. The experience was really good and then we started to supply products to other stores like Zori-Zori,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cEventuall,y we decided to open our own store after we switched from sole proprietor to LLC in February last year. We secured the location and, with the help of my partner, Victor Flores, we did everything with our bare hands\u2026 Our target market are Chamorros, tourists, and anyone who has ties with the CNMI,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

4EVER CNMI\u2019s unique business culture has already garnered a following. Aside from apparel and artwork, the store also custom-make wood signs, stickers, T-shirts caps, sand-carving on glass, stainless steel, and metal. <\/p>\n

\u201cI get feedback where I have customers say that finally we have a shop that they can go to have an item customized and not get asked to get the order in bulk,\u201d Pangelinan said.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2026Sometimes the customer walks in with a design on hand and others come to me for ideas and we work on it,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

Pangelinan does the whole process\u2014from art design to final product. \u201cIt has always been my passion to do art and I just never saw myself actually doing something about it. My whole career has been in the Human Resources field at Commonwealth Utilities Corp., Northern Marianas College, and Commonwealth Healthcare Corp. so this was a hobby that became a store,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t charge customers extra art fee. As long as you buy a shirt and you give me a design, we will be glad to produce it for you\u2026 I want everyone to feel free to come in and express themselves through artwork,\u201d she added<\/p>\n

Pangelinan admits that starting a business is tough. \u201cDuring the planning stage, I was anxious thinking of other responsibilities like rent, etc., and was in panic with thoughts of \u2018I am just going to sell wood art and apparel, nobody knows me yet and I am not going to make money.\u2019 I realized that many locals that have talent and want to open a business give up halfway because they don\u2019t know which office to go to for guidance and then the funding\u2026 I know all of that,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe CNMI Small Business Development Center gave me a lot of support, so whenever I was on the verge of giving up, they would give me that \u2018push\u2019\u2026Today, my reward is seeing a person at the store holding a piece of my art work and is happy about it. \u2026The experience of the customers moves me and it makes all the sacrifices worthwhile,\u201d she added<\/p>\n

4EVER CNMI is open Monday to Saturday from 11am to 6pm in Chalan Monsignor Guerrero in San Jose. For more information, call (670) 235-CNMI (2664),<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Cultural diversity may be the operative term of the day, but local heritage remains steadfast…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":296228,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[56],"class_list":["post-296227","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","tag-business-3"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/296227","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/30"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=296227"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/296227\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/296228"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=296227"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=296227"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=296227"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}